"I feel very humbled," said the athlete, who joins the judging panel of the magazine's annual Women of the Future scholarship awards.

"For me, it sends the message that confidence equals beauty. There are a lot of women out there who are so beautiful but don’t have the confidence, and that's what gets you over the line."

Confidence and also knowing your own strength; something she says she discovered through dealing with her injuries.

"We all have that inner strength, but rarely do we get the chance to see how incredible we truly are," Pitt said in a separate interview.

"I've had to claw my way back into life -- learn to walk, to talk. All the things I had taken for granted before became seemingly impossible tasks."

But, this unstoppable spirit shows it is possible to surpass the seemingly impossible.

Women's Weekly editor-in-chief, Helen McCabe, said the magazine has been celebrating inspirational Australian womenfor 80 years.

"When Turia was photographed as part of our Women of the Future judging panel, among a group of similarly impressive Australian women, it was clear from the moment she sat in front of the camera that the July cover had to belong to her," Ms McCabe said.

"Any attempt to describe the magic and beauty of Turia seems to get lost in platitudes or clichés. Yet I have never met a more remarkable person."

The response to the cover has been overwhelmingly positive with industry figures praising the choice as "bold and beautiful", "inspired" and "profound".